Imagine if you will that you've left the water running in your sink and flooded the house. Grover was supposed to watch over you that you didn't do that but he got busy fighting with the neighbors Ira and Alf. He said you could be trusted not to do something so foolish. Well you did do it and now all the people living in your house are pissed. You can't afford to repair the damage so you ask Grover to help. After much grumbling Grover decides that all the people living in the house will chip in to help you. They don't have the money either but, hell, they have to live in the house.
The people scratch together $85,000 for you to fix the house. You promise to be good and not leave the water running and to take care of the house so the people have somewhere to live. You're doing the best you can so why is everyone so upset you spent 44 cents on a cup of coffee?
I watched the oversight hearings yesterday and today. Much was made of AIG's $443,000 retreat mere days after we forked over $85,000,000,000 to bail them out of the mess of their own making.
It's all a matter of proportion. For the same reason we can't comprehend that one dead Iraqi is equivalent to 10 dead Americans, the Wall Street big shots can't comprehend what $1 million dollars means to the person who will never - even after a lifetime of working - move that much money through her hands. We may as well chastise them for wasting paper clips because that's how much value our "dollars" have in their world.
In the same way John D. Rockefeller could toss dimes to street urchins these people can toss off a half million for saunas and pedicures with as little thought.
The gilded age truly has returned.